Here comes another potential challenge for the toy and consumer products industries. Toy manufacturing hub, Shenzhen, is facing a possible shutdown due to the spread of the Coronavirus into the area. Here is how a Bloomberg News report, “China Outbreaks Shift to South With Shenzhen, Macau on Alert,” reports it:
China’s Covid-19 outbreak is shifting to its south coast, with a flareup in technology hub Shenzhen triggering mass testing and a lockdown of some neighborhoods.
The Chinese government met previouls outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing with stringent quarantines, causing factories to close, trucks to stop rolling, and ports to shut down. Most global toy production takes place in the Shenzhen area, so that shutdowns would have a strongly negative impact during the height of the toy shipping season.
Most nations have decided to treat Covid like the flu, something its citizens will just have to live with. China, however, has been determined to take a zero-tolerance policy toward the disease.
These continue to be challenging times. The toy community will be talking about this time in history for years to come.
